


Bracer

by ZoeGMiller



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-16
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-11-19 10:11:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18134393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZoeGMiller/pseuds/ZoeGMiller
Summary: Nighttime gardens make for sad partin(g)





	Bracer

The simmering hum of the cicadas echoed through the garden’s silence.

“My hour’s grown late, and the moon casts its dark spell,” said Lady Mikoto, gazing upwards as if she were speaking to the branches of the tree above her. “What shall I do?”

Reina’s bowstring creaked. “Gather your children, let them know comfort of a mother’s hearth.”

The early-autumn nights clung covetously to their heat, this year, and the air seemed thick enough to stifle breath.

“My children I have sent off to war, and my comfort spills from aching voice,” said Lady Mikoto, straightening the hems of her robe. “What shall I do?”

Reina squinted an eye and drew a bead on the straw target. “Clap hands and pray for safe return. If fate is whimsical, then whims may make their own fate.”

A whistle-shriek through air. Arrow struck the straw with a dull thump, shivering as it lodged itself the outer ring of the target, missing its five sisters pin-cushioning the bullseye by a large margin.

“My seers have spoken of bodies, strewn like shells along a foreign river,” said Lady Mikoto, gathering her long hair behind her shoulders as she watched Reina stroll across the garden grounds to the target. “What shall I do?”

Reina wrenched the wayward arrow loose and judged the quality of its feathers with a stroke of her finger. “Loss is naught but the chrysalis of purpose born anew.”

“The sweetest mind for poetry I know is wasted on fletchings.” Lady Mikoto brushed her hands amiably through the lush grass. “What shall I do?”

Reina rolled out her aching shoulders and swiped the sweat from her brow. The leathers of her tunic gripped her like a shroud. “Forgive me, my queen, that’s one I don’t know.”

“You ought not.” A droll smile perked Lady Mikoto’s lips. “It’s an original.”

A shy smile, as realization overtook her. Reina looked away. “Forgiveness, my lady. I let my thoughts wander.”

Lady Mikoto touched the ground beside her. “Come, sit a while.”

They leaned against great, gnarled tree together, listening to the wind whistle through the branches. A dusting of leaves shook loose, and scattered a sparse carpet of gold, green, and red at their feet.

“It’s an odd thing,” said Lady Mikoto. “Knowing this is the final time I’ll watch them fall.”

Blood boiled within Reina. Her abject hands clenched beside her, tearing grass and clenching dirt. “My lady, if I might still ask—“

“You would not be who you were if you didn’t.” Lady Mikoto’s delicate fingers traced the pathways of the scar on Reina’s face. “However, despite what the poets say, not all whims can be made fate—whether it’s five arrows that find their mark or six.”

With that touch, and those words, Reina’s thoughts grew calm. A solemn purity coursed through her dismal shape.

“Do you think on your parents, Reina?”

“Not often.”

“Sometimes, then.”

Reina hunched forward. “Even the longest string can be pulled taut.”

A voice softer than silk. “They think of you.”

Reina’s wrist flinched in the strict confines of her archer’s bracer as Lady Mikoto took her hand. “Have your seers told you that as well?”

Guiding those shaking fingers to her breast, Lady Mikoto offered the evidence of her pulse, strong and firm beneath her thin robe. “What need have I for seers, when I’ve a mother’s heart?”

Somehow, beneath the dark and watchful eyes of her lady, Reina smiled.

Lady Mikoto slowly undid the laces of Reina’s bracer. “You ought visit them.”

Reina struggled to smile. “Is that a royal edict?”

“An edict, but not a royal one.” Soft as the queen spoke, her words brooked no compromise.

The bracer came loose, and was discarded to the dirt. Freed of the confines of slick leather, Reina clung to her queen, and stroked her calloused thumb along the back of Lady Mikoto’s hand. They held each other, like that. For a time, it was all they could do.

“If I had an age.” Lady Mikoto composed herself with a wistful sigh. “I would spend it just like this.”

“In fair company, time is eternal and fleeting both.”

Gentle laughter escaped queenly lips. “Kiyoko, was it? She was never a favorite of mine.” A shake of her head as stern as it was frivolous, recalling younger days wasted on sharp-eyed and stern-minded tutors. “If I knew what would become of me, I wouldn’t have spared a moment on learning her verses.”

As her vision clouded with mist, Reina felt the frayed strands of her being attune solely to the sparkle of golden ornaments set in jet-black hair.

 “You will be strong,” said Lady Mikoto. “Even after I’m gone.”

Reina thought to shake her head. Still, even now, she yearned to fight or to flee, to act, whether boldly or cravenly. Without thought, without hesitation, without sense—

But what right had she, to rebuke the proclamation of her queen?

“I’ll miss these times with you,” said Lady Mikoto.

The gentle flex of slow fingers served as Reina’s reply.

A pair of soft exhalations lost themselves to the nighttime wind. A billowing cloud snared the moon with covetous tendrils, and, for a brief span, the garden was dark, but for the shimmer of their tears.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/zoegmiller) and send me [curious cats](https://curiouscat.me/zohg)


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